OWASP SeraphimDroid Project

OWASP SeraphimDroid

Mission:

To create, as a community, an open platform for education and protection of Android users against privacy and security threats.

OWASP Seraphimdroid is a privacy and security protection app for Android devices. It enables users to protect their devices against malicious software (viruses, trojans, worms, etc.), phishing SMS, MMS messages, execution of dangerous USSD codes, theft and loosing. Also, it enables user to protect their privacy and to control the usage of applications and services via various kinds of locks.

OWASP Seraphimdroid has two aims:

To protect user's privacy and secure the device against malicious features that may cost user money

To educate user about threats and risks for their privacy, privacy of their data and security of their device.

Introduction

Android users face many threats and risks. Since modern mobile devices are almost all the time exposed to the internet and other types of mobile networks, they are more exposed to the attacks. From the open WiFi networks that can be spoofed to the Trojan malware applications on the app stores, threats are everywhere around. Many of the attacks are successful because users are not aware of the risks and threats. They may act naive and expose themselves to the attacks even more. These attacks may lead to the identity theft, money theft, losing privacy or they devices may start acting as part of the botnet network.

In order to prevent attacks on the users, this project aims to develop a set of guidelines and application that will ensure that users are using their devices in a secure manner. Project is and always will remain open for everyone to participate and all project deliverables will be free and open source.

Description

The aim of this project is to research all threats and risks for users of Android operating system. We want to develop, as a community an free and open source security and privacy protection application and a set of security guideline for Android users. The project tend to be research oriented and we are willing to innovate in Android security field using machine learning, heuristics and other innovative techniques in order to protect our users, their privacy and money. The project is community driven and everyone is open to participate. The main aim of OWASP SeraphimDroid application should keep user data and money safe.

So far the main features include:

Permission scanner. Permission scanner will show you the list of all installed application and the permission they are using. Also app will describe potential malicious use of certain permissions. Seraphimdroid is using machine learning in order to predict whether application might be malicious (be a virus, Trojan, worm, rootkit, etc) or not and will notify the user.

Application and service locker. With OWASP Seraphimdroid, user may lock access to certain or to all of your applications and system services (WiFi, network, BlueTooth) with password

Install lock. This feature can lock all installing and uninstalling action on your device. Great for parental control.

Outgoing call and SMS blocker. This feature will allow user to perform normally outgoing calls and SMS, but it will block outgoing calls and inform about outgoing SMS performed by trojan applications.

Geo-fencing. This feature allows user to set a location range where the device should be. If the device exits the range it may set up alarm or start sending messages to the defined number with its location.

Remote location. If user lost your phone, he is able to send SMS with a defined secret code as a content and his phone and it will reply with the location coordinates of the device.

(2.10.2014) OWASP Seraphimdroid was featured on a front page and interview with a project leader was published in Libre!, Serbian online magazine about open source. Issue 29 of the Libre! magazine, where the interview was published can be seen here

(5.9.2014) The first release of OWASP Seaphimdroid was released on Google play. Blog post about features can be read here

(2.2.2014) Article about malicious use of Android permissions was published by Digital Forensics magazine. This paper was a result of research conducted on OWASP Seraphimdroid project. Article can be viewed here

OWASP Seraphimdroid is

Android application

Open source

Completely free (no paid for 'Pro' version)

Community based, with involvement actively encouraged

Under active development by an international team of volunteers

OWASP Seraphimdroid has two aims:

To protect user's privacy and secure the device against malicious features and threats

To educate user about threats and risks for their privacy, privacy of their data and security of their device.

Features:

Permission scanner. Permission scanner will show you the list of all installed application and the permission they are using. Also app will describe potential malicious use of certain permissions. Seraphimdroid is using machine learning in order to predict whether application might be malicious (be a virus, Trojan, worm, rootkit, etc) or not and will notify the user. Currently, we use SVM/SMO model trained on M0Droid malware/goodware dataset, which performed with accuracy of 88%.

Application locker. With OWASP Seraphimdroid, you may lock access to certain or to all of your application with password

Service locker. This feature enables user to lock usage of WiFi, mobile network and Bluetooth with a password.

Install lock. This feature can lock all installing and uninstalling action on your device. Great for parental control.

Incoming SMS blocker. This feature will scan all incoming messages and alert user if it find in the content potential phishing

Outgoing SMS scanner. The application will monitor outgoing SMS and alert user if the some of the application is trying to send SMS. This is the usual scenario how malware creators earn money - by sending premium SMS messages.

Outgoing call blocker. This feature will allow you to perform normally outgoing calls, but it will block outgoing calls performed by other installed applications. Similarly to outgoing SMSes, this is the scenario malware creators use to earn money.

Geo-fencing. This feature allows user to set a location range where the device should be. If the device exits the range it may set up alarm or start sending messages to the defined number with its location.

SIM change detector. Ask password when SIM card is changed in order to assure that the owner of the device is changing SIM card. Perfect for theft protection.

Remote location. If you lost your phone, you'll be able to send SMS with a defined secret code as a content and your phone will reply with the location coordinates of the device.

Remote lock. Similarly, you may lock your device using a message with secret code

Remote wipe. If your phone is stolen, you may send a message with secret code and wipe all user data from the phone.

Q1

What is OWASP Seraphimdroid?

A1: OWASP Seraphimdroid is a privacy and security protection app for Android devices. It enables users to protect their devices against malicious software (viruses, trojans, worms, etc.), phishing SMS, MMS messages, execution of dangerous USSD codes, theft and loosing. Also, it enables user to protect their privacy and to control the usage of applications and services via various kinds of locks.

Q2

Does it requires device root access?

A2: No. The application is designed in order to protect usual users, without any advanced skills (i.e. rooting the device).

Volunteers and contributors

OWASP SeraphimDroid is developed by a worldwide team of volunteers. The primary contributors to date have been:

Nikola Milosevic

Aleksandar Abu Samra

Chetan Karande

Ali Tekeoglu

Furquan Ahmed

Kartik Kohli

Corporate sponsors

Individual sponsors

Others

OWASP Seraphimdroid encourages students and University lecturers to contribute to the projects. We would like to encourage any BSc, 3rd year or master project ideas that would improve Seraphimdroid app. Project leaders are willing to co-supervise these projects. Please contact us if you are interested. At the end of the page are listed some of the potential project ideas, but we encourage you to send us your ideas as well.

Behavioral malware and intrusion analysis

Brief Explanation:

OWASP Seraphimdroid is an Android mobile app which already has a capability to statically analyze malware using machine learning (weka toolkit) relying on permissions. However, this is usually not enough and we intend to improve this with behavioral analysis. There are a number of paper in scientific literature describing how to detect malware and intrusions by dynamically analyzing its behavior (system calls, battery consumption, etc.). The idea of this project is to find the best approach that can be implemented on the device and implement it.

Expected Results:

Reviewing scientific literature and find feasible approach we can take

Implement and possibly improve the approach in Seraphimdroid

Test the model and provide controls to switch algorithm on or off and possibly fine tune it

Framework for plugin development

Brief Explanation:

OWASP Seraphimdroid is well rounded security and privacy app, however, it lacks some components community can provide. We would like to provide community the way to develop plugins that can add features to OWASP Seraphimdroid app. However, the way of integrating external components into Android app may be challenge. The way of presenting GUI and integration between processes need to be examined and developed.

Expected Results:

Examining the way of integrating third party apps through some provided API to OWASP Seraphimdroid

As of SeraphimDroid, the priorities are:

MVP development of Android security application with educational content

Documenting approaches taken during the development

Try to publish some papers

Further development and improvement

Involvement in the development and promotion of SeraphimDroid is actively encouraged! You do not have to be a security expert in order to contribute.

OWASP Seraphimdroid encourages students and University lecturers to contribute to the projects. We would like to encourage any BSc, 3rd year or master project ideas that would improve Seraphimdroid app. Project leaders are willing to co-supervise these projects. Please contact us if you are interested. At the end of the page are listed some of the potential project ideas, but we encourage you to send us your ideas as well.

Some of the ways you can help:

Help coding open source security app

Write project documentation

Help with marketing and reaching more users and contributors

Design logo or controls

Research possible permission misuse, models for fraud and spam detection, new anti-theft approaches

Just let us know what as a user you would like to see new or improved

Future development should include:

Handling spam messages (SMS, MMS) in a better way

Developing Seraphimdroid as extendable platform with plugins made by other developers

Purpose: OWASP Seraphimdroid is a privacy and security protection app for Android devices with educational dimension. It enables users to protect their devices against malicious software (viruses, trojans, worms, etc.), phishing SMS, MMS messages, execution of dangerous USSD codes, theft and loosing. Also, it enables user to protect their privacy and to control the usage of applications and services via various kinds of locks. The educational dimension of the project is to teach users about and point out the threats and risks in mobile security.